Italian Agrifood Technology for Africa is born to innovate sub-Saharan agriculture

He has never made a secret of his entrepreneurial passion for Africa, and he has brought hundreds of Italian exhibitors to Rimini. Now that - after eleven years as managing director - Macfrut is behind him, Renzo Piraccini is making it the focus of his business.

Italian Agrifood Technology for Africa is born, a project to support Italian agrifood companies interested in extending their business to sub-Saharan countries. Valuable potential suppliers - the latter - of agricultural products, grappling with an enormous infrastructural-technological deficit and with a staggering demographic growth prospect on the horizon: 2.5 billion by 2050.

In these countries, agriculture already employs more than 50 per cent of the workforce and, despite their great potential, a substantial part of African states import significant quantities of agricultural products, the prices of which, especially in modern distribution, are higher than in Europe. "Then there is the very important issue of refrigeration: about one third of all fruit and vegetables is lost before reaching the market," says Piraccini.

The centrepiece of the 'platform' Italian Agrifood Technology for Africa will be technologies for the fruit and vegetable sector - fresh and processed - and related services. "We aim to promote the activities of member companies through presentations and networking events, the identification of customers, agents and distributors for sales, and the selection of personnel to join the teams of member companies for internships in Italy," Piraccini explains.

Starting next January, three annual promotion and networking events will take off from three hubs:Dakar, in Senegal; Nairobi, in Kenya; and Johannesburg, in South Africa.
Piraccini will be joined by Carlo Baroni, an international manager in the agritech sector in Senegal, and Luca Alinovi, an agricultural economist and entrepreneur in Kenya.